This Way of Life

A film about a family. Mum, dad, six kids and 50 wild horses, a beach, a mountain and a burnt down house.

Against the stunning beauty of New Zealand's rugged Ruahine Mountains, Peter Karena and his wife Colleen struggle to instill in their kids the values of independence, courage and happiness. The family has little in the way of material possession but they possess a physicality most of us can only dream of. The children ride bareback as they hunt and play in the wild. Unafraid and untamed, they are supremely confident, as if risk is an alien concept.

Shot over four years, This Way of Life is an intimate portrait of a Maori family and their relationship with nature, adversity, their horses and society at large. The Karenas cultivate the magic in the everyday, turning hardship into a meaningful and satisfying life.  This complete immersion in another way of life reveals that the price of freedom is something that is well worth paying.